Experienced Coach,
and Former Dean Director, The London Deanery
Professor Elisabeth (Lis) Paice was born in Washington DC, the youngest of six children. Her family moved to
Montreal, Dublin and then Paris and Lis completed her schooling at the International School in Geneva. She only
decided to become a doctor in her final year at school, when she was doing A ‘levels in English, French and History.
As a result, she spent the next year cramming science A ‘levels.
A chance encounter with the best man at her sister’s wedding
resulted in wedding bells for Lis while at Trinity College, Dublin.
She then transferred to Westminster Medical School and qualified
in 1970. Two years later Lis gained her MRCP, and as a Medical
Registrar within the Oxford Region, Lis was able to access the
‘Married Women’s Part-Time Training Scheme’ that was set
up by Dame Rosemary Rue. She spent the next seven years
training part-time while raising three children and took up a fulltime Consultant Rheumatologist post at the Whittington
Hospital in 1982.
During her time at Whittington Hospital, Lis became interested
in postgraduate medical education and became Clinical Tutor.
She was later appointed Associate Postgraduate Dean for North
East Thames, with responsibility for the preregistration and senior
house officer years and flexible training. She began a series of
hospital visits, interviewing this group of junior doctors in every
department and every hospital. The findings were shocking and
thus began the annual trainee survey, which later became the
basis for the General Medical Council’s Trainee Survey, several
publications and some much-needed reforms.
In 1995, Lis became the Dean Director of Thames Postgraduate
Medical and Dental Education and specifically focused on
flexible training such that no eligible trainee had to wait for
funding, and left her clinical job at Whittington Hospital. Despite
much reconfiguration in the region, Lis remained in her role as
Dean Director until 2010. She was Chair of the Conference of
Postgraduate Medical Deans in the UK from 2006-2008.
A year later, Lis was invited to be the independent Chair of the
North West London Integrated Care Programme and has since
been involved with this programme. She was also asked to lead
the patient involvement work, which led to the development of the
Lay Partner Advisory Group. Her greatest lesson is that she did
not learn much earlier to involve patients in the strategic decisions
that affect their care.
The best career decision Lis made was to keep working beyond
the age of 65, but in preparation for her retirement, she undertook
training as a Coach and Mentor and developed a passion for this
work. She wrote about her learning in New Coach, published
in 2012, and the same year she and her sister published a book
entitled A Grandparent’s Survival Guide to Childcare.
Lis continues to work as a Non-Executive Director at
Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is a Visiting

Professor in the Faculty of Clinical Sciences at University College
London and at Imperial College London. She is an active Coach
and Mentor and now trains other coaches.
Lis has made an enormous difference to the work and lives of
the next generation of doctors by publishing extensively on doctors
in difficulty, workplace bullying, and women in medicine. She
is inspired by the commitment and excellence of so many young
doctors she has worked with over the years.
In 2010 she received the NHS Leadership Academy Award
for Mentor of the Year, gained an Honorary Fellowship of the
Academy of Medical Educators, and the National Award for
Professional Excellence from the British Association of Physicians
of Indian Origin. In 2011, Lis received an OBE for services to
medicine, the NHS Leadership Award for Partnership of the Year
in 2012 and the London Leadership Award for Patient Champion
in 2015.
Lis has three children and six grandchildren and lives in London
with her husband.
* Favourite Music: Manha de Carnivale by Stan Getz
* Most inspired by: Atul Gawande for his intelligent analysis of
health care issues

Elisabeth’s advice to junior doctors is to “Look after yourself and your family. No-one else will.”